An Honorary Spanish Diva, I am

Happy November y'all


I'm in a bind right now...I seriously just spent so much money buying music online..oh no! I have a problem! I don't even have enough money to pay my cell phone bill anymore, after I pay everything else. I'm going to have to go on eBay and sell more things right now. Oh no...but on the bright side I got alot of cool rarities...like Maribel Guardia's debut album from 1988 (yep, all pop dance) and Erika Buenfil. Ooooh and this kick ass compilation from 1993 where pop stars sing traditional Mexican music. Tatiana, Lucia Mendez, Yuri, Maria Conchita, Sasha (Sokol), Aida Cuevas...they're all there

So internetland, tell me.....what do you feel about "pochos" and their use of the Spanish language? In my mind, I think it's better for pochos to speak fucked up Spanish than to not speak any at all.. However in both cases, I think that it's important to explore our culture and appreciate where we've come. This is an issue of personal choice obviously, but I also think that it's stupid to live in a country like the USA and to not take the initiative to learn the language or educate yourself on your background. Your heritage is an important template in which you can paint your destiny, and the more you know about it, the better you can paint your future. I find it amazing that some "pochos" spend their whole lives trying to downplay their ehtnicity in their attempt to "assimilate". I guess everyone's entitled to their own "survival technique" in life.

I lived a standard Chicano childhood, living in the middle of a storm of confusion...hearing and living peasant Mexican life at home and going to school and being exposed to the "American" aspect of society. It was two completely different worlds, and early on I always felt I had to compromise one aspect from the other in the attempts to have both worlds make sense to me. I would, in other words, make my Mexican life more "American" to that side so they could understand me ...and try my best to make my Mexican life understand the other half of me by bastardizing my English and American education. How could I identify with other people who aren't Mexican-American...they don't eat tortillas and have loud parties. How can I have my parents meet my teachers and communicate with them, since all my education is in English and my parent's don't speak it? See it was a fun childhood...having to live with this continuous gut feeling of worry. But I made a choice to separate myself from both worlds and find my own identity, one that I can feel is completely my own and can help me see the world thru every eye and aspect possible. I educated myself to see every culture I could, learn from everything...and well, here I am. I'd like to think I'm a double-edged sword...I'm entirely American in every sense...but can see the world thru Mexican's eyes. Life would have been much easier for me in my "single-digit years" if I had this amount of compassion back then...but oh well, live and learn